paul flannery

Shaquille O'Neal's entertainingly frustrating season in Boston

On the day Shaquille O’Neal met Boston, he was greeted by a wall of television cameras, photographers and reporters from both news and gossip along with the usual sports media contingent. Taken in a vacuum, this spectacle made no sense. He was here as just another old vet looking to hang on one for more year at the minimum. It’s not like Kurt Thomas would cause this kind of stir. But, as we came to find out, Shaq is unlike anyone else.

His time in Boston was an odd mix of wonderfully orchestrated public events -- and they were capital-E Events -- with a real fondness for being part of an old-school basketball team that knew itself and didn’t worry about the big man’s fondness for grabbing the spotlight off the court.

He quickly defused any issue over his role and by the end of training camp he was not only starting, he was also taking an active role in turning the grumpy old Celtics into one of the most entertaining and charismatic teams in the league. This was almost all Shaq’s doing.

He dressed in drag for Halloween although he insisted it was really his cousin Shaquita, even concocting a decent, albeit ridiculous, backstory. He said he would pose as a statue in Harvard Square and then he did it. As conceptual art it was fascinating and as public relations it was brilliant. What would Shaq do next? Conduct the Pops, obviously. (The one that never happened was a giant snowball fight on the Common announced on Twitter.)

His comedic timing wasn’t always perfect. He came up with the name, Blackie Bulger, the Godfather of Sudbury, after an exhibition game in New Hampshire and later had to apologize for it. (It should be no surprise that Shaq knew all about the Bulger case and rattled off numerous details when I asked him about it). That was the only real quasi-controversy of his time here and it barely registered a ripple.

Shaq can get away with just about anything because what sets him apart from his peers is that he is completely comfortable with himself and his fame. “It’s not an act,” he said on the Dennis & Callahan show this morning. “What you see is what you get.”

His act on the court was better than anyone expected and the Celtics looked almost unbeatable at times. They were 27-9 with him in the starting lineup and 21-4 when he could give them 20 minutes. He shot 67 percent and the Celtics offense performed as well as it did all season, if not the last four.

He was so good that hardly anyone blinked when Jermaine O’Neal started breaking down and missing games. As the calendar turned to 2011, Shaquille O’Neal owned the city.

And then he got hurt.

As everyone knows, Shaq’s Achilles injury wasn’t expected to linger. He had sat out a few games before, but this time he would get the proper rest and treatment and return reasonably healthy. No more five games in, two games out, for Shaq.

His return was just days away. Days became weeks and weeks became months and as he said at his retirement press conference in Orlando he took shot after shot but nothing worked. It was during this time that Shaq went from larger than life to just another injured vet working for the minimum.

What changed the dynamic considerably was that team president Danny Ainge executed the trade that sent Kendrick Perkins to Oklahoma City with the idea that Shaq’s return was imminent. It was the tragic flaw in Ainge’s bold plan to remake the team for the future while adding pieces for the present.

After he got hurt in late January, the giant that had captured Boston’s imagination largely disappeared from view. His return was brief and awkward, lasting just five minutes against the Pistons before limping off the court and gamely playing 12 total minutes in two playoff games.

“I was really down on myself because I went up there with one mission only and I felt like I let the city down,” he said. “I didn’t want that to happen again.”

His impact, then, was mixed. From a basketball perspective he is part of an odd footnote in Celtics history. Like Rasheed Wallace, Artis Gilmore and a post-1986 Bill Walton before him, O’Neal joined the Celtics at the end of his career looking to win a ring and broke down in the process.

But Shaq will always stand apart. Name the last prominent athlete to come to this town and not only reach out to the community, but also try to become an actual part of its fabric. Stories in Sudbury are numerous about the time someone ran into Shaq. He left a stamp on Boston and by his own account, the area left one on him too.

In the aftermath of his initial announcement that was ingeniously broadcast on a new social media tool, it’s obvious that Shaq belonged to the NBA more than the Lakers or Magic and obviously much more than Miami, Phoenix Cleveland or Boston.

Judgment also holds that Shaq could have been more dominant, but he ultimately lacked the singular focus of some of the other greats. He acknowledged that on Friday, but also didn’t make any apologies for the way things turned out. That was his decision and he seems perfectly content with its ramifications.

He also spent a lot of time answering questions about how he felt about his other stops on his 19-year tour. Shaq left every city he played in on bad terms, except for one. He called the Celtics a “beautiful organization” and singled out Doc Rivers along with Phil Jackson.

“Playing for Doc Rivers this year was very, very special,” he said. “We had a lot of talent on the team but Doc Rivers always, always focused on the team. Thank you Doc.”

Boston is a small part of his outsized legacy, but a significant part nonetheless. As disappointing as the ending was, his impact can’t only be measured on the court. His retirement press conference was carried live on Comcast and this radio station and again, 37 games doesn’t justify the attention.

In the end, as one friend put it, “It was more fun when he was out there.” That was his gift as an entertainer/basketball player and while it doesn’t replace a championship, it was how he will be remembered in Boston.

Flannery joins Mut to break down the Isaiah Thomas trade to Boston and what it means for the Celtics this season and in the future. Paul also chats with Mut about the other deals that happened at the NBA's trading deadline

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